Mark McMorris at the 2025 RSEO. Photo: Aaron Dodds
When it was announced the Rockstar Energy Open (RSEO) was bringing its inaugural snowboarding event to Breckenridge Ski Resort this year, the brand promised a celebration of snowboarding’s culture and a creative, fresh take on what a snowboarding event could be. Planning the whole thing on the tail end of Breck’s annual Ullr Fest — a days long winter kickoff highlighted by the entire town praying for snow, dancing around a bonfire just off of main street, and attempting a world record for the longest ever shotski — might have been a festive cheat code.
There was a film festival celebrating the start of the event Friday night and DJ sets from Torren Foot and Westend — A-list talent if you’re of the house music-loving population — brought a sizable crowd to Breckenridge’s Main Street. But these things are common at marquee action sports events. They injected energy into the start of the weekend, but truthfully, event organizers crafted something unique in the competitive space that stood out, and the sport can build on that if enough people start asking for more.
The Southern Rockies aren’t exactly blanketed in snow thus far this season and “laid back” contests don’t typically provide a ton of energy. Those two things alone could have put a damper on the inaugural snowboarding event, but they didn’t. The RSEO format just isn’t like anything else in the competitive space. It wasn’t set up like a traditional slopestyle, big air, or halfpipe event. Instead, organizers designed a multi-terrain course with rails, quarterpipes, a hip that became the highlight of runs throughout the weekend, and more. Those features weren’t as physically imposing as your typical slopestyle course, for example. Anybody who’s seen a traditional, Olympic-level slopestyle course in person would recognize that the features built next to Breck’s Chair Five were much smaller. That was intentional, meant to push athletes’ attention on style and flow rather than going big and packing in so many spins the average viewer stops counting.
All this also allowed the RSEO to piece together a one-of-a-kind field of athletes. True to its “Open” name, there was a list of invited professionals that included Olympians like Red Gerard, Jamie Anderson, and Mark McMorris while also holding a Video Qualifier Series. The final result was a competition field with riders from a range of disciplines. Brandon Davis, for example, primarily films backcountry segments, but he came out to Breckenridge and won Friday’s Rail Jam contest.
“I feel like this snowboard contest was for the culture and a little more to show the roots of what snowboarding’s about,” he said on Day 1 of the event, after winning the Rail Jam. “It’s a real low-pressure scenario if you just board for your heart. I’m excited to win, but it’s just snowboarding; we take this all too seriously. The Olympics and all that has such a regimen, and we’re just trying to come here and hang out and not stress. It’s a blessing.”
The crowds were definitely into it. Photo: Mark Dillon
If you were among the crowd at Breckenridge Ski Resort throughout the weekend, you got used to hearing the on-site announcers use the word “style.” They let fans know not to expect the massive airs you’d find at an Olympic slopestyle course. That little bit of pretext paired with the low-pressure atmosphere among the athletes allowed them to feed off one another.
Dusty Henricksen won the Men’s Parkstyle event in Sunday’s Final — the main event of the weekend — and he echoed the sentiment of being “refreshed” by the new take on a snowboarding event.
“Snowboarding contests are missing this entirely. It’s about mayhem, style, fun and watching your buddies go 30 feet in the air,”Dusty Henricksen said. “It’s pretty rad to see Oyvind (Kirkus) up in there. He’s one of those guys that could have gotten the invite off the bat, but he worked his way up the hard way through the Video Qualifier Series and absolutely ripped it.”
“It’s been insane. It’s been such a good competition for the culture, having so many different features, so many different ways to express yourself through this course. It’s a true snowboard event, and I’m just happy I had a chance to do this and got to make it the whole way through,” said Kirkus, who faced Henricksen head-to-head in that men’s final.
The women’s field also provided its own exciting storyline. Olympian Jamie Anderson was one of the bigger names of the entire event, and she took her first podium Sunday since stepping away from competition for maternity leave.
“Some of these girls are babies! I think I’m like 20 years older than a lot of them,” she said. “It’s trippy, but it’s good. We need the youth, and they need the oldies like me. It’s good to see the younguns – these insanely talented girls. It’s refreshing to see a sick course and all the creativity!”
Red Gerard at the 2025 RSEO. Photo: Mike Yoshida
